Neutered bunny humping again

[tomtom]

Hi all,
First post!

I've got a pair of lops, both bucks, one is 2.5yrs old and has been neutered since he was 6months, the second is 9 months old and neutered since he was about 5 months. They've been introduced 4 months ago and have lived together with no real issues for the past 4 months, but in the past 2 weeks the older buck has started humping the younger one. He's been the clear dominant and very protective of the younger bunny, but this is a new develpment.

Any ideas why this has just started now? What can we do? Is it still ok to keep them living together?

Thanks,
Tom

 

[Watermelons]

dominance

Just because they got along okay a bit before, doesn't mean they always will. Keep a close eye on them, make sure they are both getting equal food and water and sleeping places. You may need to seperate them if the issue escalates.

 

[Sweetie]

Yes it is dominance. I would keep an eye on them and make sure that they don't fight, if they do you will need to separate them. You may have to keep them in separate cages if they start to fight with each other, because a fight between two males will break their bond quicker than a male's and female's bond, or even two females bond.

Glad they are bonded and I hope that they stay bonded. It is very hard to keep two males bonded to each other.

 

[tomtom]

They've been with a minders over the weekend, so we're thinking it may have upset the balance somehow if there was other bunnies around them. So we've given their hutch a good clean out and keeping an close eye on them.

Theres no fighting, but whenever the older tries to mount the younger usually runs off.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

Our bonded pair of females was that way--one would hump, but not too often. The funny thing is we had a bonded pair of males and they never humped.

 

[I_heart_Fraggles]

Fraggles is spayed and lives alone. But she humps cats. Check my most recent post for a little on this behavior.